ScienceGoodtogrow - Unit overview

Lesson 1 – Living things in the environment. Understand that there are living things in their environment.	Introduction to the class blog and unit topic about ‘Living things’ with the Voki //Living things// Studentsbrainstorm what they know about living things while teacher create and scribe on spiderscribe.net and create link on the Class blog. Play video //Needs of living thing// Students predict what living things may be found on the school grounds. Students work in groups and walk around the schoolgroundtaking photographs of living things. Observations and comparisons with predications are recorded on a Word Documents with support from teacher. Students share and discuss their photos and notes with ther rest of the class. Teacher makes a screenshot of Word Documents and upload it on the class blog. Assessment task explained to students which involves observing and caring for a plant and animal throughout the unit. Students will be assessed on their online poster on Glogster, their science journals and entries and participation on the class blog.
Lesson 2 – Identify the life stages of humans. Students understand that humans grow and change through different life stages.	With use of PowerPoint the requirements of taking care of a plant and animal are explained. Students choose a living thing (animal and a plant) to observe throughout the unit about how it change and develop. Student take photographs and record their observations at the beginning of every lesson. Teacher discuss life stages of humans and show Slide show presentation //Look at me now.// Students are shown the video //Age progression.// With the use of students’ baby photos and current school photos (scanned prior to lesson and displayed on whiteboard) are used to match and compare the baby photo to student. Display pictures of other people and students to match the baby pictures with the adult picture. Students draw themselves as babies and write their observations and ideas about their first life stage. They draw themselves at current life stage and write their observations and ideas down. Students use learning object //Human Life Cycle//to learn more about how humans change through different life stages.
Lesson 3 – Examining the stages of offspring who resemble the adults. Students understand that some animals represent their parents at birth.	Students take photographs and record their observations of their plant and animal. Students school photographs are displayed on whiteboard along with parent photographs and students are ask to compare the features of the student with those of their parents. Display the slideshow //Mystery animal//and ask students to guess what baby animal they are. Students to match baby animals with their parents on the learning object //Find the parent//and teacher discuss how the knowledge of life stage can help recognise baby animals and their parents. Students are divided into their groups and they will search for pictures of animals on Flickr that do resemble their parents at birth. Students write post on class blog including pictures.
Lesson 4 – Examining the life stages of offspring who look different to the adults. Students understand that some offspring do not resemble the adult when born and go through a sequence of changes in life stages until they do.	Students take photographs and record their observations of their plant and animal Students work in groups and share their ideas about baby animals that look like their parents and animals that don’t look like their parents. Teacher scribe student’s ideas on spiderscribe.com while students share their thoughts with the rest of the class. Students are shown a slideshow of animals that don’t resemble their parents at birth – Match me to mum. Students are shown a video //Metamorphosis: Change of plans//and teacher discuss the different life stages and changes of the animals. Display pictures of animals on electronic whiteboard and ask students to look at the feature of the animals to work out what animal they are. Students work in groups of three and they will search for pictures of animals that do not resemble their parents at birth. Students write post on class blog including pictures.
Lesson 5 – Examining life stages of plants. Students understand that plants experience a series of life stages as they grow.	Students take photographs and record their observations of their plant and animal Students are shown the videos of //How do plants grow//and share their ideas and observations with class. While teacher scribe on bubbl.us students compare their observations with the plant they have been caring for. Students predict what their plant will look like in the future. The video //From seed to fruit//are shown and discussed with students Students draw and describe the life stages of a plant. Students compare life stages of a plant with the life stages of an animal in groups and record on class blog.
Lesson 6 – Investigating how life stages affect needs. Students understand that the needs of living things can change throughout their live stages.	Students take photographs and record their observations of their plant and animal Students are shown the video of //Animals that grow up in families//and show the video with the song //The needs of animals//. Students share their ideas about how the needs of animals are met. Explain to students that when animals grow up in families, the adults teach the young to care for themselves, while animals that grow up alone use instinct to be independent. Ask students to work in groups and share their ideas about how this knowledge can be related to caring for a pet and a plant. Students research websites (links provided by teacher) for the life stages of an animal or plant and record how their needs are met throughout the life stages.
Lesson 7 – Using knowledge of life stages in everyday life. Students understand that some living things can be used at their different life stages.	Students take photographs and record their observations of their plant and animal View slideshow //Using life stages in everyday life//(Learning place). View the interactive slideshow //Plants we eat// (Learning place) and discuss the different plants that people eat. Students search provided websites for a plant or animal that can be used to source a product or material. They draw and label the life stages of the living things and describe whether each life stage can be used and how. They enter their notes on the blog. Teacher scan drawings and load onto the class blog. Students use the learning object //Plants// individually to learn more about the needs of a plant to grow.
Lesson 8 – Assessment – How does it grow?	Explain to students the assessment task that involves creating a storyboard to represent the life stages of a living thing on Glogster. Explain that students will also be assessed on their science entries on the blog and their science journals. Explain and model the use of Glogster as an online tool. Explain that the observations and notes of one of their living things need to be on Glogster and that their science journal need to be handed in with the notes of both their plant and animal. Explain to students that they need to include picture, voice recordings and/or word documents. Students do an online quiz to revise what they have learned. Students get an opportunity to write a short reflection of what they learned on the class blog.